DOCSLIB.ORG

Difficulties with Eggs and Babies the Nest on Their Feet

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Difficulties with Eggs and Babies the Nest on Their Feet P ublished by Western Waterslager Club March 2009 The foll owing two articles were written by Dr. David E. Marx and were written about pigeons. Much is This can happen during laying as they often become contaminated with feces during this process. It can also very applicable to our hobby. happen by fecal contamination after laying, frequently from parents defecating in the nest or tracking feces in Difficulties with Eggs and Babies the nest on their feet. During damp periods, nesting material often gets high This tim e of the year when many of us are expecting numbers of bacteria in it from parents tracking feces and our first round of youngsters to hatch, we are the dampness and warmth of the sitting parents disappointed with some aspect of our breeding encourage bacterial growth. The higher the numbers of success. The most common problems being clear bacteria around the eggs the easier it is to have eggs; eg gs which die before hatching; and babies penetration of the shell and subsequent infection of the which pe rish in the first few days of life. embryo. Clear eg gs tend to be the most prevalent in the first Babies dying in the first few days of life occurs when round or two. These are the eggs that never begin they are infected either in the egg, resulting in weak develop ment because of being infertile. The testicle in hatchlings, or they become infected after hatching. After the cock s gets quiescent during the shorter daylight hatching they can become infected from the crop milk periods. Breeding activity reawakens them and they from either parent or from the nesting material. begin producing sperm and testosterone at a higher level. During damp periods it is often helpful to change the nesting material just prior to the eggs hatching as While this process is under way, there is often a low infection enters the squabs easiest just after hatching sperm count and a lower sex drive in cocks. through the umbilical area which is yet unsealed. Frequently the breeding vigor and frequency is decreas ed as well a there being diminished sperm in When certain parents experience repeated deaths in the ejac ulate. newly hatched babies, they should be separated and treated with a broad spectrum antibiotic for about 10 All these can produce infertile eggs. One or both eggs days, and for trichomonas, then re-mated. Pay attention being infertile in the first round are a frequent finding to the condition of the nesting material during the times sometim es running as high as 50% or more of the mentioned above and provide clean dry nesting material eggs. Th e weather plays some role in this. Colder, as indicated. darker periods accentuate the problem. There are other factors that may cause the problems Eggs that begin developing but fail to fully develop and discussed here. Only the most frequent caused were die in th e shell can be the result of several things. discussed here. Poor inc ubation can cause embryo death. Here the parent(s) may fail to keep the eggs warm for even a Babies who die in the egg (as long as the shell remains short period during very cold weather. intact) and babies who die soon after hatching are often valuable specimens for culture. A culture can be very Eggs ge tting jarred excessively at critical points of revealing as to cause of death and possible course of development may also perish. Infection in the egg is action to prevent future deaths. probably the most common cause. The infection may be incorporated in the egg by hens having an oviduct Dr. David E. Marx D.V.M infection . Infection more frequently occurs through the shell. This is another pigeon article, but I believe it is worth reading. I did a little research, and many “bird All babies are exposed to some bacteria, as people” advocate disinfecting the eggs/nests. All commercial chicken hatcheries use some product. they are never in very aseptic condition at If you go to the Vanodine web site they recommend hatching. I take an infective dose of bacteria to spraying their product directly on the nest. There is begin an infection, the numbers depending on enough information that I will at least put many variables. “something” in the hen’s bath water to keep pathogens in the nest down. Richard Rolloff The more bacteria that are present, the easier it is for them to infect. If nest pads are used (either commercial varieties or homemade from Young Birds Dying In the Nest Early carpet, etc.), they should be disinfected and dried thoroughly before use, and should be This breeding season I have received about 10 replaced just before the babies hatch to consultations concerning youngsters dying at discourage this from happening. an average of 2 days of age. This is recommended for lofts having this There are many reasons for young to die in the problem. For those who use them with no nest. The obvious ones of being trampled, problems, it may be something to consider. A chilled, etc. occur only occasionally. Clorox solution or Nolvasan solution can be used to disinfect, but remember to wash away Trichomonas can overwhelm a squab but this is as much organic material before soaking. not epidemic in most cases. When it occurs in Soaking time of an hour or so should be extraordinary numbers, it is usually adequate. They should be thoroughly dry and symptomatic of a septicemic (body wide, being aired before reuse. spread via the blood stream) infection caused by bacteria. It is possible that I am making an inaccurate assumption, but I feel it is my duty to share The infection can be started before hatching, what I suspect to hopefully help as many the egg being contaminated before being laid or fanciers prevent problems. through bacteria penetrating the shell (this usually when conditions are damp and fecal In cases where no pads are used, it is still wise contamination present. Most often it happens to change nest material with each new clutch immediately after hatching. and just before eggs hatch. Culturing a fresh dead baby may also help understand this A correlation, which I have just figured out, is syndrome. the use of nest pads. Nest pads have been the common denominator in all the cases that I Babies dying early on occur occasionally but have been involved with this season. when this becomes epidemic, nest pads should be at the top of the rule-out list. Granted, nest pads are commonly used with good results, but for some reason I believe that Dr. David E. Marx D.V.M. they become a good place for bacteria to increase in numbers. These bacteria serve to infect the babies as they hatch, probably invading through the umbilicus before it dries AN ECONOMICAL WAY TO SHOW CANARIES Sara Palmer In thes e tightly restricted cash times, I was lucky enough to have Bonnie Black join in my effort to have my Waters lagers shown. It took some planning and timing efforts but was worth the time and trouble. Maybe this is the wave of the future but this effort gave me the ability to have my birds shown with less expense. The firs t step was coordinating an arrival date so it fit with Bonnie's work/event schedule. So we found a date she h ad open as she had to drive a considerable distance to her airport. I also have to drive about 60 miles one w ay to airport in Sarasota. Then I had to make a pet reservation to have birds flown by cargo. I chose Delta Dash as their rates were less than other carriers and knew where they were located in Sarasota FL airport. Some of the service counters are in the airport facility and others are in airport cargo area. Made pet reservation - airlines gives you a reserv ation number - called Bonnie with date, flight numbers, and time of arrival. You can only make pet reserv ation 7 days in advance of flight. Birds were shipped in a hard sided under the seat pet carrier. Rubber mat in bottom - kind you use in drawers to kee p things from sliding around - perches inserted and water taped in one side. Seed was spread over the rubber matt. Carrier marked with signs LIVE BIRDS on sides and top. I made these signs from the computer and ta ped them on to the carrier. You need to have birds to airport 2 hours before scheduled flight. All paper work was done and ready and waiting for my signature. No vet certificate required. I did have to show my driver license as ID. It is then up to airlines to get the birds to California as scheduled. The birds were sent COD so Bonnie had to pay the shipping bill whe n she received the birds. I had birds at airport at 7:15AM and emailed Bonnie - usually I call a person receiv ing birds but with the time difference, it was better to email. My bi rds did not do well at the show, so Bonnie will sell them for me and we will pay the cost of shipping outright . We have agreed to split any money from others that are sold. If the birds had blown them selves off the sc ore sheets, then Bonnie was to ship 2 back to me and keep 2 for her. Needless to say that did not happe n and they will be sold as pets.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Phylogeography of Finches and Sparrows
    In: Animal Genetics ISBN: 978-1-60741-844-3 Editor: Leopold J. Rechi © 2009 Nova Science Publishers, Inc. Chapter 1 PHYLOGEOGRAPHY OF FINCHES AND SPARROWS Antonio Arnaiz-Villena*, Pablo Gomez-Prieto and Valentin Ruiz-del-Valle Department of Immunology, University Complutense, The Madrid Regional Blood Center, Madrid, Spain. ABSTRACT Fringillidae finches form a subfamily of songbirds (Passeriformes), which are presently distributed around the world. This subfamily includes canaries, goldfinches, greenfinches, rosefinches, and grosbeaks, among others. Molecular phylogenies obtained with mitochondrial DNA sequences show that these groups of finches are put together, but with some polytomies that have apparently evolved or radiated in parallel. The time of appearance on Earth of all studied groups is suggested to start after Middle Miocene Epoch, around 10 million years ago. Greenfinches (genus Carduelis) may have originated at Eurasian desert margins coming from Rhodopechys obsoleta (dessert finch) or an extinct pale plumage ancestor; it later acquired green plumage suitable for the greenfinch ecological niche, i.e.: woods. Multicolored Eurasian goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis) has a genetic extant ancestor, the green-feathered Carduelis citrinella (citril finch); this was thought to be a canary on phonotypical bases, but it is now included within goldfinches by our molecular genetics phylograms. Speciation events between citril finch and Eurasian goldfinch are related with the Mediterranean Messinian salinity crisis (5 million years ago). Linurgus olivaceus (oriole finch) is presently thriving in Equatorial Africa and was included in a separate genus (Linurgus) by itself on phenotypical bases. Our phylograms demonstrate that it is and old canary. Proposed genus Acanthis does not exist. Twite and linnet form a separate radiation from redpolls.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Olga Petri and Philip Howell from the Dawn Chorus to the Canary Choir
    Olga Petri and Philip Howell From the Dawn Chorus to the Canary Choir: Notes on the Unnatural History of Birdsong Humanimalia 11, 2 (Spring, 2020): 163-192 https://www.depauw.edu/humanimalia/issue%2022/petri-howell.html 1. Introduction Figure 1. Songbirds and birdsongs: from Athanasius Kircher, Musurgia Universalis (1650). Birdsong is exemplary in its quotidian familiarity, and yet enigmatic almost to the point of obscurity, the heroic efforts of the ornithologists notwithstanding (Stap).⁠ Even the 1 term “birdsong” is debatable, if by this we make the claim that nonhuman animals produce music, which is a canonical example of question begging. Naturalists still disagree even on why birds sing (Araya-Salas; Higgins 31-32; Rothenberg, Why Birds Sing; Taylor, Is Birdsong Music?), and they might be placed on a spectrum from the behaviorists and evolutionary biologists, who insist that the sounds birds make are no more than a territorial warning or a sexual invitation, to those who see or hear something else, some excessive exuberance, either approximately or exactly equivalent to our human act of singing for pleasure. Birdsong is, for such aficionados, perhaps even an analogy to art itself (Okanoya; Zeigler; Marler).⁠ They rightly lean on the venerable authority of Darwin here. For him, it is the voices of the passeriformes, the perching or singing birds, that explain nothing less than the evolution of the aesthetic. But they also follow the lead of Kant and his fulsome appreciation of the “free beauties of nature,” “pulchritudo vaga”: “things of nature into which no human has placed any meaning whatsoever” (cf.
    [Show full text]
  • COMMUNITY CONSERVATION PLAN The
    The Pas - Saskatchewan River Delta CCP Page 1 of 1 COMMUNITY CONSERVATION PLAN for the The Pas - Saskatchewan River Delta IMPORTANT BIRD AREA Cory Lindgren Manitoba IBA Program Oak Hammock Marsh Box 1160, Stonewall, Manitoba R0E 2Z0 For Manitoba Naturalist Society 10/03/01 The Pas - Saskatchewan River Delta CCP Page 2 of 2 Table of Contents 1.0 The IBA Program...................................................................................................... 6 1.1 IBA Manitoba................................................................................................................................ 7 2.0 Introduction................................................................................................................... 7 3.0 IBA Site Information .................................................................................................... 8 3.1 Carrot River Triangle........................................................................................................................ 9 3.2 Tom Lamb WMA............................................................................................................................. 9 3.3 Saskeram Area................................................................................................................................ 11 3.4 Summerberry Marshes.................................................................................................................... 11 3.5 Grand Rapids Hydro Development ...............................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Olga Petri and Philip Howell -- from the Dawn Chorus to the Canary Choir: Notes on the Unnatural History of Birdsong
    H U M a N I M A L I A 11:2 Olga Petri and Philip Howell From the Dawn Chorus to the Canary Choir: Notes on the Unnatural History of Birdsong 1. Introduction. Figure 1. Songbirds and birdsongs: from Athanasius Kircher, Musurgia Universalis (1650). Birdsong is exemplary in its quotidian familiarity, and yet enigmatic almost to the point of obscurity, the heroic efforts of the ornithologists notwithstanding (Stap).⁠ Even the term “birdsong” is debatable, if by this we make the claim that nonhuman animals produce music, which is a canonical example of question begging. Naturalists still disagree even on why birds sing (Araya-Salas; Higgins 31-32; Rothenberg, Why Birds Sing; Taylor, Is Birdsong Music?), and they might be placed on a spectrum from the behaviorists and evolutionary biologists, who insist that the sounds birds make are no more than a territorial warning or a sexual invitation, to those who see or hear something else, some excessive exuberance, either approximately or exactly equivalent to our human act of singing for pleasure. Birdsong is, for such aficionados, perhaps 164 even an analogy to art itself (Okanoya; Zeigler; Marler).⁠ They rightly lean on the venerable authority of Darwin here. For him, it is the voices of the passeriformes, the perching or singing birds, that explain nothing less than the evolution of the aesthetic. But they also follow the lead of Kant and his fulsome appreciation of the “free beauties of nature,” “pulchritudo vaga”: “things of nature into which no human has placed any meaning whatsoever” (cf. Figal 54, 55).⁠ This natural beauty might even be more sublime than human art, since “a bird’s song, which we can reduce to no musical rule, seems to have more freedom in it, and thus to offer more for taste, than the human voice singing in accordance with all the rules that the art of music prescribes” (Kant 73-74).
    [Show full text]
  • Biology of Microtetrameres Sturnellae N Sp (Nematoda: Tetrameridae) Charles Jennings Ellis Iowa State University
    Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Retrospective Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 1967 Biology of Microtetrameres sturnellae n sp (Nematoda: Tetrameridae) Charles Jennings Ellis Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd Part of the Zoology Commons Recommended Citation Ellis, Charles Jennings, "Biology of Microtetrameres sturnellae n sp (Nematoda: Tetrameridae) " (1967). Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 3926. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/3926 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Retrospective Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This dissertation has been microfilmed exactly as received 67-12,952 ELLIS, Charles Jennings, 1921- BIOLOGY OF MICROTETRAMERES STURNELLAE N. SP. (NEMATODA: TETRAMERIDAE). Iowa State University of Science and Technology, Ph.D., 1967 Zoology University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan BIOLOGY OF MICROTEmMEEES STUmELT'AE N. SP. (KEMA-TODA: TETKAMERIDAE) by Charles Jennings Ellis A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Major Subject: Zoology (Parasitology) Approved : Signature was redacted for privacy. Signature was redacted for privacy. Head of Major Department
    [Show full text]
  • Brats in Feathers, Keeping Canaries Free
    FREE BRATS IN FEATHERS, KEEPING CANARIES PDF R C 'Robirda' McDonald | 180 pages | 22 Jul 2010 | Createspace | 9781453638798 | English | Scotts Valley, United States How to Care for Your Canary: 13 Steps (with Pictures) - wikiHow Uh-oh, it looks like your Internet Explorer is out of date. For a better shopping experience, please upgrade now. Javascript is not enabled in your browser. Brats in Feathers JavaScript in your browser will allow you to experience all the Keeping Canaries of our site. Learn how to enable JavaScript on your browser. Home 1 Books 2. Add to Wishlist. Sign in to Purchase Instantly. Members save with free shipping everyday! See details. Most likely, if you are reading this, you are considering the pros and cons of getting a Ball Python as a pet, and you want to find out as much about them as possible. If that's the case, you've come to the right Brats in Feathers There is a lot of information about reptiles in other books and, of course, online, but most of these sources Brats in Feathers fall into one of two categories: unreliable or difficult to understand. You need a source of information that is neither of these Keeping Canaries, that is both reliable and easy to understand. This book is written for the non-expert, as a simple and direct guide to understanding Ball Pythons. Order your copy of this fantastic book today! Product Details. Related Searches. A Brats in Feathers model resolution with available relevant data can often provide insight towards a solution A compounding model resolution with available relevant data can often provide insight towards a solution methodology; which Adobe Type Manager models, tools and techniques are necessary? What are our Keeping Canaries View Product.
    [Show full text]
  • Keeping Canaries Free
    FREE KEEPING CANARIES PDF Brian Keenan | 160 pages | 01 Oct 2012 | The Crowood Press Ltd | 9781847972996 | English | Ramsbury, United Kingdom Canary — Full Profile, History, and Care They are active, cheerful, beautiful, and have a delightfully lovely Keeping Canaries With such a busy world today, pet canaries can make an ideal companion for many people. Canary pet birds are colorful and have pleasing personalities. There is nothing like a peaceful, pretty canary song to unravel nerves at the end of the day. Most types of canaries can sing, though they may not sing all the time. A canary singing is entertaining in itself but they Keeping Canaries some other very desirable traits as well. Adding a pet canary to your home doesn't add an unwelcome burden. They are Keeping Canaries, so keeping canaries takes up very little space. They are also less costly to purchase than many of the larger parrots and some of the other soft billed birds. Canaries are hardy and undemanding, so the canary bird care is pretty easy. They don't pout like a parrot might if you are unable to play with them. And of course, being 'bird-oriented' rather than 'people-oriented', they are unlikely to become finger tame birds. You can simply sit back, relax, and enjoy the antics of these little charmers, and a pretty canary song as well. All domestic canaries originated from the Island Canary Serinus canaria. There are basically three types Keeping Canaries domestic canary today; the Color Canary bred for various canary colors, the Song Canary bred for their canary song, and the Type Canary bred for distinct characteristics of shape, feathering, and size.
    [Show full text]
  • Turkish Journal of Agriculture - Food Science and Technology, 8(4): 941-944, 2020 DOI
    Turkish Journal of Agriculture - Food Science and Technology, 8(4): 941-944, 2020 DOI: https://doi.org/10.24925/turjaf.v8i4.941-944.3197 Turkish Journal of Agriculture - Food Science and Technology Available online, ISSN: 2148-127X | www.agrifoodscience.com | Turkish Science and Technology Canary Production# Fatma Yenilmez1,a,* 1Tufanbeyli Vocational School, Çukurova University, 01640 Tufanbeyli/Adana, Turkey *Corresponding author A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T #This study was presented as an oral Canary (Serinus canarius) is one of the most beautiful cage birds. They are small and delicate presentation at the 1st International songbird species. Their origin is the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean. They were first brought Congress of Alternative Poultry and Ornamental Birds (IAPOC 2019) to Europe by the Spanish sailors in 1478. Than Britain, Germany, France, Netherlands and Italy were started professional canary breeding. The wild ones live in flocks, mostly on the edge of wooded Review Article lakes and creeks. While the color of canaries grown in cages is completely yellow, the wild ones are gray-green. Sound in the wild canary is stronger and more impressive. There are 3 types of canaries commonly produced. These are “Song canaries”, “Color canaries” and “Form canaries”. Nowadays Received : 25/11/2019 they are often produced for their beautiful color and sound. This article gives brief information about Accepted : 01/12/2019 canaries and to provide resources to enthusiasts who want to do produce has been prepared. Keywords: Songbird Ornamental bird Cage bird Morphological features Canary types a [email protected] https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5470-7974 This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License Introduction The cage canary birds (Serinus canarius) are birds come together for this contest (Anonymous, 2019a).
    [Show full text]
  • The Problem of Birds Escaping from Captivity
    THE PROBLEM OF BIRDS ESCAPING FROM CAPTIVITY By DEREK GOODWIN THE acceptance or rejection of rarities and new candidates for the British list is often made difficult by the possibility of their being escapes from captivity. In many cases a certain decision is impossible and the only practical course is to take into considera­ tion all the evidence and decide for the likeliest hypothesis. This article is written principally in the hope of giving assistance in this respect. Secondarily, it will, I hope, stimulate bird-watchers to identify and observe even those species which are obvious escapes. The behaviour and adaptability, or lack of it, of birds which thus find themselves far from their normal range and often far from any suitable environment, is of the utmost interest. continued... 339 340 BRITISH BIRDS [VOL. XUX It would take too long to discuss all the species which have been imported and sold in this country during the past ten years. It must be remembered, therefore, that the birds dealt with in this paper are in the main only those which have been, and in many cases still are being, imported into this country in some quantities. Also, the numbers of the different species imported may fluctuate widely in response to trade, politics and other factors. Probably by the time this appears in print some species not even mentioned herein will be on sale in thousands and some now to be found in every bird-dealer's will no longer be obtainable. In assessing which birds have been most commonly imported since the war I have relied very largely on dealers' advertisements appearing in Cage Birds and other journals.
    [Show full text]
  • Immanuel Kant's Sparrow
    Immanuel Kant’s Sparrow An integrative approach to canary-like singing House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) DISSERTATION der Fakultät für Biologie der Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität München vorgelegt von Lucie H. Salwiczek München, Mai 2004 durchgeführt am Max-Planck-Institut für Verhaltensphysiologie in Seewiesen 1. Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Wickler 2. Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Gerhard Neuweiler Tag der Abgabe: 05.05.2004 Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 22.07.2004 Teaching birds to imitate tunes was a popular and lucrative hobby in the 18th century. The Bird Fancyer’s delight was the first collection of tunes, published by the rivals J. Meares (1717) and J. Walsh (1717). From Godman 1954. The most famous house sparrow was Clare Kipps’ Clarence. He produced a remarkable song with two sections (see below): first an introduction with the usual sparrow chirping, though less harsh in tone, followed by a several times repeated four note trills. The second more melodious part „opened with an eight-note trill, followed by a high, sweet, plaintive note. Then, descending by an interval of which I am not quite sure, it rose again to a second trill of eight notes a perfect fourth higher than the first. This theme was repeated several times and sometimes ended abruptly but more often returned to the tonic.“ From Kipps 1956b. III ABSTRACT The adoption of foreign song elements occurs under natural conditions in various songbird species including the house sparrow Passer domesticus, even though it may go largely unnoticed by humans. House sparrows singing canary song have been known by hobbyists for a long time.
    [Show full text]
  • Loss of Carotenoid Plumage Coloration Is Associated with Loss of Choice for Coloration in Domestic Canaries
    BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT published: 05 April 2019 doi: 10.3389/fevo.2019.00106 Loss of Carotenoid Plumage Coloration Is Associated With Loss of Choice for Coloration in Domestic Canaries Rebecca E. Koch 1,2* and Geoffrey E. Hill 1 1 Department of Biological Sciences, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, United States, 2 School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia Understanding the evolution of mating display traits and preferences for them is a major aim of behavioral and evolutionary ecology. However, isolating the specific traits used as mate choice criteria and the possible genetic underpinnings of both trait and preference has proven difficult, particularly in natural systems offering little experimental control over key variables. In this study, we used discrete color morphs of otherwise phenotypically identical domestic canaries (Serinus canaria) in a mate choice apparatus to test whether breeding-condition female canaries show preference for males of varying Edited by: color phenotypes (yellow, white, red, or wild-type green), using spatial association as Ann Valerie Hedrick, a proxy for choice. We also used synthesized vocal recordings to examine whether University of California, Davis, United States females in our population exhibited mate choice for song characteristics, as has been Reviewed by: demonstrated in this species. Contrary to previous study, we found that neither white nor Conor Taff, yellow females in our colony showed any preference for males associated with songs Cornell University, United States of differing quality, and yellow females also did not prefer supernormal red or wild-type Udo M. Savalli, Arizona State University, United States green males over yellow males.
    [Show full text]
  • Experimental Usutu Virus Infection in Domestic Canaries Serinus Canaria
    viruses Article Experimental Usutu Virus Infection in Domestic Canaries Serinus canaria Emna Benzarti 1, José Rivas 1, Michaël Sarlet 1, Mathieu Franssen 1, Daniel Desmecht 1, Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit 2,3 , Giovanni Savini 4, Alessio Lorusso 4, Anne-Sophie Van Laere 1 and Mutien-Marie Garigliany 1,* 1 Fundamental and Applied Research for Animals & Health (FARAH), Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Liège, Sart Tilman B43, B-4000 Liège, Belgium; [email protected] (E.B.); [email protected] (J.R.); [email protected] (M.S.); [email protected] (M.F.); [email protected] (D.D.); [email protected] (A.-S.V.L.) 2 Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, WHO Collaborating Centre for Arbovirus and Haemorrhagic Fever Reference and Research, 20359 Hamburg Germany; [email protected] 3 Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Natural Sciences, University of Hamburg, 20354 Hamburg, Germany 4 OIE Reference Centre for West Nile Disease, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale “G. Caporale”, 64100 Teramo, Italy; [email protected] (G.S.); [email protected] (A.L.) * Correspondence: [email protected] Received: 18 January 2020; Accepted: 27 January 2020; Published: 31 January 2020 Abstract: Usutu virus (USUV) is a neurotropic flavivirus closely related to West Nile virus (WNV). Its enzootic cycle mainly involves mosquitoes and birds. Human infection can occur with occasional, but sometimes severe, neurological complications. Since its emergence and spread in Europe over the last two decades, USUV has been linked to significant avian outbreaks, especially among Passeriformes, including European blackbirds (Turdus merula). Strikingly, no in vivo avian model exists so far to study this arbovirus.
    [Show full text]